President Bush released the details of his $2.13 trillion budget for FY2003 February 4. As has been widely reported, the proposal focuses on increasing expenditures for military spending and homeland defense and security, while paring down funding for some domestic programs. Congress will now debate and revise the document, and it will likely be months before legislators and the president reach a final budget agreement.

Despite limits on federal spending, several bright spots remain for the architecture community. For example, the president's budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides $200 million for the renewal and redevelopment of contaminated and hazardous waste sites known as brownfields. The president's plan also generously provides for the General Services Administration (GSA), including $986 million for repairs and alterations at government-owned and leased buildings and $557 million for new construction, up from $386 million in FY2002. A portion of these funds will go toward site design or construction of 21 federal courthouses, a part of new homeland security efforts. According to GSA, the budget includes increased funding for high-level security for GSA-managed facilities and for additional security threat-reduction measures.

Elsewhere, the budget includes funds for ongoing Army Corps of Engineers projects, requests $1.3 billion for energy efficiency and renewables, and provides money, at about the same rate as last year, for transportation construction. It also continues to support the work of the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board.

The president's proposal also focuses on tax credits, shifts budget authority to the states, and relies more on private-sector services. Next week's Angle, the AIA's electronic newsletter on legislative issues, will present a more detailed report on the proposed budget. To subscribe, send an email.

—Tracy F. Ostroff, Associate Editor

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.